State Secrets in the Hong Kong National Security Law

States have the interest to prevent unauthorized disclosure of state secrets or intelligence, which may jeopardize state security and essential interests. Nearly all countries have enacted specific domestic statutes or adopted relevant rules in their domestic laws regulating obtaining, retaining and disclosure of state secrets. On the other hand, the impact of those state secrets regulations on the freedom of information and governmental accountability generates concerns. The conflict of interests between national security and freedom of information requires national security legislation to strike a balance both to provide adequate protection of a state’s essential interests and to prevent the potential abuse of government’s power on the ground of state secrets. A number of international principles and standards were adopted, including the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information 1997 and the Global Principles of National Security and the Rights to information 2013, all treating the freedom of information a primary principle with state secrets as exception and provides detailed guidance on legislation. Would those principle have any bearings on the Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL)？Article 29 of the HKNSL provides: ‘A person who steals, spies, obtains with payment, or unlawfully provides State secrets or intelligence concerning national security for a foreign country or an institution, organisation or individual outside the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of the People’s Republic of China shall be guilty of an offence.’ State secrets in the HKNSL generate uncertainty and controversy, caused by three deficits, namely the ambiguous concept, the low threshold and the lack of procedural due process and it may bring about negative impact in press freedom, government transparency and business security.